Cryptocurrency Bitcoin jumped to an all-time high above $6,300 on Tuesday, after the world’s largest futures market operator CME Group said it would launch a regulated trading venue for cryptocurrencies in the fourth quarter of 2017, Reuters reports. The new futures contracts will be settled in cash, based on the CME ‘CF Bitcoin Reference Rate’, a once-a-day reference rate of the U.S. dollar price of bitcoin, the company said.
The price of bitcoin jumped to as high as $6338.60 according to trade website Coindesk’s price index, which aggregates the prices quoted across several exchanges. That was up from around $6,215 before the news. On the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange, bitcoin jumped to as high as $6,351 BTC=BTSP, up almost 4 percent on the day.
Bitcoin has surged in value by around 555 percent so far this year. AFDB Support FG’s Economic Recovery plan, denies cancelling $400m loan. The African Development Bank (AfDB) has commended the Federal Government’s Economic and Growth Recovery Plan (EGRP), while denying a report that the bank has called off loans to Nigeria.
A statement on the bank’s website, denied the loan cut off credited to AfDB’s Vice-President for Power, Energy, Climate and Green Growth, Mr Amadou. The bank also commended the Federal Government’s efforts to stem corruption and strengthen fiscal consolidation and efficiency in the country.
Reuters news agency had reported that the Bank called off negotiations for a loan to Nigeria that was meant to help government fund its budget. The report quoted the Bank’s Vice-President for Power, Energy, Climate Change & Green Growth, Amadou Hott, as making the disclosure on Monday in an interview during a Nordic-African business conference in Oslo, Norway.
Mr. Hott was reported to have said that the AfDB would rather be willing to redirect the fund to specific projects in Nigeria, than give government to fund the deficit in the 2017 budget. According to the report, talks between AfDB Nigeria for the release of the second tranche of $1billion loan (about $400 billion) to shore up the country’s 2017 budget was on for about a year.
But, Reuters said Nigeria refused the terms by the international lenders, including the World Bank, to enact various reforms, including allowing the Naira to float freely on the foreign exchange market. But, the AfDB denied the report on Tuesday in a statement from its headquarters in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
According to the statement, in November 2016, the Board of the African Development Bank approved a 600 million dollars loan to support Nigeria’s efforts to cope with macro-economic and fiscal shocks that arose from the massive decline in price of crude oil.
“An additional 400 million dollars in support could be considered, if requested and approved by the Board, as part of a larger coordinated effort with other development partners, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
The African Development Bank wishes to categorically refute the statement that it has “called off loans to Nigeria”, as reported in Reuters and credited to AfDB Vice-President for Power, Energy, Climate and Green Growth Amadou. The AfDB is highly encouraged by the economic recovery of Nigeria from recession and salutes the government’s efforts towards diversification of the economy.
The Bank also strongly supports the Economic and Growth Recovery Plan of the government and efforts to stem corruption and strengthen fiscal consolidation and efficiency. The Bank assures the Nigerian Government of its full support for its continued reforms to diversify the economy and boost economic growth and development,’’ it said.
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